DOCSLIB.ORG

The Cross and the Crucifix by Steve Ray

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Cross and the Crucifix by Steve Ray The Cross and the Crucifix by Steve Ray Dear Protestant Friend: You display a bare cross in your homes; we display the cross and the crucifix. What is the difference and why? The cross is an upright post with a crossbeam in the shape of a “T”. A crucifix is the same, but it has Christ’s body (corpus) attached to the cross. As an Evangelical Protestant I rejected the crucifix—Christ was no longer on the cross but had ascended to heaven. So why do I now tremble in love at the site of a crucifix? Let’s examine the history and issues surrounding the two. I will start with the Old Testament and the Jews’ use of images and prohibition of idols. I know in advance that it is not a thorough study, but it will give a general overview of the issues. I will try to provide a brief overview of the Cross and the Crucifix, the origin, the history, and the differing perspectives of Catholic and Protestant. It will try to catch the historical flow and include the pertinent points. The outline is as follows: 1. The Three Main Protestant Objections to the Crucifix 2. Images and Gods in the Old Testament 3. Images and Images of Christ in the New Testament 4. The Cross in the First Centuries 5. The Crucifix Enters the Picture 6. The “Reformation” and Iconoclasm 7. Modern Anti-Catholics and the Crucifix 8. Ecumenical Considerations The Three Main Protestant Objections to the Crucifix Let me begin by defining “Protestant” as used in this article. First, it is used to describe the first Reformers who tore down crucifixes and crosses in the first years of the Reformation; and second, it refers to general American Evangelical-type Protestants. Granted there are many Anglican and “high” Luthers and others that do not object to the crucifix or other Christian symbolism. With that behind us, let’s begin. The first major objection of the Protestant regarding the crucifix (an image of Christ on the cross) is that Christ is no longer on the cross--He is risen. I was raised with this observation and my friend would ridicule the Catholic traditions. My friend also challenged us when we first became Catholics, commenting, “We serve a risen Christ, not one that is still on the cross.” Unfortunately for them, since childhood my mother had valued her beautiful Christmas crèche scene. I asked the obvious: “Do you serve the risen Christ or one still in the manger?” (I also had to comment on the cute little statue of Our Lady standing over the plastic baby Jesus, along with the animals.) Second, Protestants see the image of Christ on the cross as a violation of the command to make no graven image. The Reformers were big on this. Protestants now utilize plain crosses in their “churches,” on their walls, and around their necks, just as they have pictures of Jesus (always with soft skin and melodrama) on their walls. (I was raised with this feminine Jesus presiding, ever so romantically, over our dinner table. After spending time in the Holy Land, driving through the Judean wilderness, and ascending Mount Tabor, which he and his disciples frequented, I doubt he was so dainty and delicate; he probably had calves like a bear and smelled a bit like one as well.) However, at the turn of the this century the Protestant churches (excluding Lutheran) were still pretty much opposed to display of the cross, even the bare cross. The bare cross was not in wide use until recently, though current Protestants don’t know their own history on the matter and that their predecessors opposed it as much as they did the Crucifix. Third, they object to the Crucifix because it is Catholic and to condone or display the Crucifix is to make a statement in favor of Catholicism. No one of “Reformed” persuasion would want to be identified as a Catholic. A bare cross seems to be generic, which is what most Protestants like--generic Christianity--with no history to criticize or Church to obey. Images and Gods in the Old Testament Since the people in olden ages worshiped idols made of earthly materials [Endnote 1], God forbade the children of Israel to possess such “gods”. “Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God’” (Ex 20:1-3). Even while God was inscribing these Words on the tablets of stone, the Israelites were violating His command. “Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a molten calf; and they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt’” (Ex. 32:34). We know that it was not the image itself, which was the problem. It was the making of an image that was considered to be a god and the subsequent worship of the image as a god. This is clear from the Scriptures, for if the making of an image was evil, then God commanded His people to violate His own laws. We will look at three examples in which God commanded the children of Israel to make images that were the likeness of “what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” First, the Mercy Seat which was situated in the Holy of Holies was to have golden cherubim above it with wings outspread. We read, “And you shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat” (Ex 25:18). Cherubim are images of things in heaven, angelic beings who stand before the throne of God. These images were to be placed at the center of Israel’s worship. However, there was no thought of worshiping the golden images, they were there for illustrative reasons, to replicate a spiritual reality, and they were three-dimensional, formed out of gold, at the command of God Himself. The very goldsmiths who were condemned for making a golden image (the calf) are now commanded to make a golden image (the cherubim). Second, Moses was given detailed directions for the vestments worn by Aaron and the priests. Embroidered into the hem of Aaron’s gorgeous robe were artistic representations of bells and pomegranates. “And you shall make on its hem pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet material, all around on its hem, and bells of gold between them all around: a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, all around on the hem of the robe. And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers; and its tinkling may be heard when he enters and leaves the holy place before the Lord, that he may not die” (Ex 28:33-B35). An image or likeness of a fruit, something obviously copied from an earthly model. The third example is found during the Israelites’ forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The people became impatient and spoke against God and Moses. In response God sent poisonous serpents into their camp and many died. When they begged Moses to intercede for them the Lord responded with the command to make an image of a serpent. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live’. And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived” (Num 21:8-9). A “graven image” of a serpent was raised upon a pole to be gazed upon by the children of Israel, and the image was used by God to heal the people from the fiery bites of the serpents. The bronze serpent, even raised on a pole, was not a violation of God’s earlier command against graven images. The earlier command was against having or worshiping a god besides the Lord. Image was synonymous with the practice of ancient peoples who made and called images “god” and actually worshiped them. This was sin, not the simple act of making or having a representation of a physical or heavenly object. It is the intent, and the purpose for which the image is made that becomes the sin, not the image itself. An image is simply an image, a representation. On the other hand an image intended to be a god is a god and is thus idolatry. Making a dish or cup is not a sin, worshiping the dish or cup as a god is idolatry and therefore sin. That the intent and reaction to an image is the real issue is born out by the fact that the bronze serpent was good, commanded by God, and served a sacramental purpose, yet when it was later treated as an idol, by the act of worship, it became idolatry and fit the category of an image that was a “god” that was a substitute for the God of Israel, the living God.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sign of the Son of Man.”
    Numismatic Evidence of the Jewish Origins of the Cross T. B. Cartwright December 5, 2014 Introduction Anticipation for the Jewish Messiah’s first prophesied arrival was great and widespread. Both Jewish and Samaritan populations throughout the known world were watching because of the timeframe given in Daniel 9. These verses, simply stated, proclaim that the Messiah’s ministry would begin about 483 years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 445BC. So, beginning about 150 BC, temple scribes began placing the Hebrew tav in the margins of scrolls to indicate those verses related to the “Messiah” or to the “Last Days.” The meaning of the letter tav is “sign,” “symbol,” “promise,” or “covenant.” Shortly after 150 BC, the tav (both + and X forms) began showing up on coins throughout the Diaspora -- ending with a flurry of the use of the symbol at the time of the Messiah’s birth. The Samaritans, in an effort to remain independent of the Jewish community, utilized a different symbol for the anticipation of their Messiah or Tahib. Their choice was the tau-rho monogram, , which pictorially showed a suffering Tahib on a cross. Since the Northern Kingdom was dispersed in 725 BC, there was no central government authority to direct the use of the symbol. So, they depended on the Diaspora and nations where they were located to place the symbol on coins. The use of this symbol began in Armenia in 76 BC and continued through Yeshua’s ministry and on into the early Christian scriptures as a nomina sacra. As a result, the symbols ( +, X and ) were the “original” signs of the Messiah prophesied throughout scriptures.
    [Show full text]
  • Th E Bells of St. M Ar
    GOD IS GOD IS FEBRUARY 2017 Dear Saint Mary's family, We are off to a good start for 2017. As I write this letter we are just three full weeks in to the new year and already so much is happening. We have held our first Annual Meeting together, and the response has been very posi- tive. At that meeting we were able to make amendments to the church’s By-Laws that will allow us to go forward with a smaller eight person Vestry, all of whom were elected unanimously by the members present at the meeting. At our February Vestry meeting we will vote for a Junior Warden, Treasurer, and Secretary. With that accomplished we will begin the process of looking at all of the different aspects of the way we at Saint Mary’s currently do things. The end goal of that process is to identify and eliminate any barriers to growth that might not have been considered, and to find ways to improve upon many of the things we are already doing well. To that end, please begin to pray to see if God may be calling you to participate in any of the ministries that currently exist at Saint Mary’s. This is going to be a fun and exciting time for us to bond and grow together as we seek to strengthen the teams and look at the ways they function. Ushers and Greeters, the Flower and Altar Guilds, Eucharistic Ministers and Visi- tors… Perhaps you have a special talent or hobby that could be used to the Glory of God and you have never considered how.
    [Show full text]
  • Russian Copper Icons Crosses Kunz Collection: Castings Faith
    Russian Copper Icons 1 Crosses r ^ .1 _ Kunz Collection: Castings Faith Richard Eighme Ahlborn and Vera Beaver-Bricken Espinola Editors SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS SERIES PUBLICATIONS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Emphasis upon publication as a means of "diffusing knowledge" was expressed by the first Secretary of the Smithsonian. In his formal plan for the Institution, Joseph Henry outlined a program that included the following statement: "It is proposed to publish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries in science, and of the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge." This theme of basic research has been adhered to through the years by thousands of titles issued in series publications under the Smithsonian imprint, commencing with Stnithsonian Contributions to Knowledge in 1848 and continuing with the following active series: Smithsoniar) Contributions to Anthropology Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics Smithsonian Contributions to Botany Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology Smithsonian Folklife Studies Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology In these series, the Institution publishes small papers and full-scale monographs that report the research and collections of its various museums and bureaux or of professional colleagues in the worid of science and scholarship. The publications are distributed by mailing lists to libraries, universities, and similar institutions throughout the worid. Papers or monographs submitted for series publication are received by the Smithsonian Institution Press, subject to its own review for format and style, only through departments of the various Smithsonian museums or bureaux, where tfie manuscripts are given substantive review.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Cruciform Symbols and Magical Charaktères Luc Renaut
    Christian Cruciform Symbols and Magical Charaktères Luc Renaut To cite this version: Luc Renaut. Christian Cruciform Symbols and Magical Charaktères. Polytheismus – Monotheismus : Die Pragmatik religiösen Handelns in der Antike, Jun 2005, Erfurt, Germany. hal-00275253 HAL Id: hal-00275253 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00275253 Submitted on 24 Apr 2008 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. CHRISTIAN CRUCIFORM SYMBOLS victory in Milvius Bridge, Constantine « was directed in a dream to cause AND MAGICAL CHARAKTÈRES the heavenly sign of God ( caeleste signum Dei ) to be delineated on the Communication prononcée dans le cadre du Colloque Polytheismus – Mono- shields of his soldiers, and so to proceed to battle. He does as he had been theismus : Die Pragmatik religiösen Handelns in der Antike (Erfurt, Philo- commanded, and he marks on the shields the Christ[’s name] ( Christum in sophische Fakultät, 30/06/05). scutis notat ), the letter X having been rotated ( transversa X littera ) and his top part curved in [half-]circle ( summo capite circumflexo ). »4 This As everyone knows, the gradual political entrance of Christian caeleste signum Dei corresponds to the sign R 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Danz, Kathy Ehrensperger, and Walter Homolka (Eds.) Christologie Zwischen Judentum Und Christentum
    SCJR 16, no. 1 (2021): 1-3 Christian Danz, Kathy Ehrensperger, and Walter Homolka (Eds.) Christologie Zwischen Judentum und Christentum (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2020), xiv + 447 pp. GREGOR MARIA HOFF [email protected] University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria In recent years, the discussion about the significance of Christology in Jewish- Christian dialogue has taken on a new dynamic. Various factors are responsible for this. Two recent documents by Orthodox Jews, “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven” (2015) and “Between Jerusalem and Rome” (2016), represent important statements. The authors raise essential questions about Christology. Among them is the question of how Jewish-Christian dialogue can deal with the issue. For the Catholic Church, more than fifty years after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, a theological deepening of the basis for dialogue is on the agenda in its contact with Judaism. With the document “‘The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable’” (2015), the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews once again raised the question of the significance of the “universality of salvation in Jesus Christ” (Sect. 37) and affirmed that the “covenant of God with Israel has never been revoked” (Preface). In addition to the issues raised by these religious communities, there have been shifts in various theological discourses. They concern exegetical perspectives which, starting from the New Perspective on Paul, also concern Christological questions. They are connected with questions about the “parting of the ways” and the complex emergence of rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. They concern tradition-historical questions about the development of theological concepts in both traditions and in relations between them, revealing their inner diversity.
    [Show full text]
  • Friends, This Evening I Invite You to Gaze Upon the Crucifix
    Fr. Michael O’Brien Friends, I invite you to gaze upon the painting of our Lord on the cross beside me. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. To understand the cross is how we come to know Christ. It is at the foot of the cross that we confront the mystery of our faith—the promise of eternal life in the midst of death. St. Paul tells us that it is Christ crucified that we must preach as Christian people. We may be tempted to ask what is the point of remembering the Passion of Jesus—why can’t we go right to His Resurrection, but, If we were to skip over the events of Good Friday, what meaning would there be in Easter Sunday? It is the sacrificial love of Jesus for His people that is best displayed through the crucifix. Jesus is more than a moral teacher, he is more than a prophet, he is more than just a nice guy, he is the Redeemer of humanity, the Son of God. The early Church chose the Cross as its central symbol even though the Cross was associated with criminal execution. Jesus wanted the sacrifice of his life remembered, therefore it is vital that we come to know Christ through the cross. They cannot be separated. That’s why we venerate the cross, that’s why we wear the cross around our necks, to symbolize our Christianity. To show the world the price that God’s Son paid for our redemption. The solemnity of the cross is increasingly lost upon society today.
    [Show full text]
  • Liturgical Press Style Guide
    STYLE GUIDE LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org STYLE GUIDE Seventh Edition Prepared by the Editorial and Production Staff of Liturgical Press LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition © 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Cover design by Ann Blattner © 1980, 1983, 1990, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2008 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. Printed in the United States of America. Contents Introduction 5 To the Author 5 Statement of Aims 5 1. Submitting a Manuscript 7 2. Formatting an Accepted Manuscript 8 3. Style 9 Quotations 10 Bibliography and Notes 11 Capitalization 14 Pronouns 22 Titles in English 22 Foreign-language Titles 22 Titles of Persons 24 Titles of Places and Structures 24 Citing Scripture References 25 Citing the Rule of Benedict 26 Citing Vatican Documents 27 Using Catechetical Material 27 Citing Papal, Curial, Conciliar, and Episcopal Documents 27 Citing the Summa Theologiae 28 Numbers 28 Plurals and Possessives 28 Bias-free Language 28 4. Process of Publication 30 Copyediting and Designing 30 Typesetting and Proofreading 30 Marketing and Advertising 33 3 5. Parts of the Work: Author Responsibilities 33 Front Matter 33 In the Text 35 Back Matter 36 Summary of Author Responsibilities 36 6. Notes for Translators 37 Additions to the Text 37 Rearrangement of the Text 37 Restoring Bibliographical References 37 Sample Permission Letter 38 Sample Release Form 39 4 Introduction To the Author Thank you for choosing Liturgical Press as the possible publisher of your manuscript.
    [Show full text]
  • {DOWNLOAD} Cross
    CROSS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK James Patterson | 464 pages | 29 Apr 2010 | Headline Publishing Group | 9780755349401 | English | London, United Kingdom Cross Pens for Discount & Sales | Last Chance to Buy | Cross The Christian cross , seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus , is the best-known symbol of Christianity. For a few centuries the emblem of Christ was a headless T-shaped Tau cross rather than a Latin cross. Elworthy considered this to originate from Pagan Druids who made Tau crosses of oak trees stripped of their branches, with two large limbs fastened at the top to represent a man's arm; this was Thau, or god. John Pearson, Bishop of Chester c. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of Wood fixed in the Earth, but also a transverse Beam fastened unto that towards the top thereof". There are few extant examples of the cross in 2nd century Christian iconography. It has been argued that Christians were reluctant to use it as it depicts a purposely painful and gruesome method of public execution. The oldest extant depiction of the execution of Jesus in any medium seems to be the second-century or early third-century relief on a jasper gemstone meant for use as an amulet, which is now in the British Museum in London. It portrays a naked bearded man whose arms are tied at the wrists by short strips to the transom of a T-shaped cross. An inscription in Greek on the obverse contains an invocation of the redeeming crucified Christ.
    [Show full text]
  • Practicing Love of God in Medieval Jerusalem, Gaul and Saxony
    he collection of essays presented in “Devotional Cross-Roads: Practicing Love of God in Medieval Gaul, Jerusalem, and Saxony” investigates test case witnesses of TChristian devotion and patronage from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages, set in and between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, as well as Gaul and the regions north of the Alps. Devotional practice and love of God refer to people – mostly from the lay and religious elite –, ideas, copies of texts, images, and material objects, such as relics and reliquaries. The wide geographic borders and time span are used here to illustrate a broad picture composed around questions of worship, identity, reli- gious affiliation and gender. Among the diversity of cases, the studies presented in this volume exemplify recurring themes, which occupied the Christian believer, such as the veneration of the Cross, translation of architecture, pilgrimage and patronage, emergence of iconography and devotional patterns. These essays are representing the research results of the project “Practicing Love of God: Comparing Women’s and Men’s Practice in Medieval Saxony” guided by the art historian Galit Noga-Banai, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the histori- an Hedwig Röckelein, Georg-August-University Göttingen. This project was running from 2013 to 2018 within the Niedersachsen-Israeli Program and financed by the State of Lower Saxony. Devotional Cross-Roads Practicing Love of God in Medieval Jerusalem, Gaul and Saxony Edited by Hedwig Röckelein, Galit Noga-Banai, and Lotem Pinchover Röckelein/Noga-Banai/Pinchover Devotional Cross-Roads ISBN 978-3-86395-372-0 Universitätsverlag Göttingen Universitätsverlag Göttingen Hedwig Röckelein, Galit Noga-Banai, and Lotem Pinchover (Eds.) Devotional Cross-Roads This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
    [Show full text]
  • The Key of the Mysteries
    THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES (LA CLEF DES GRANDS MYSTÈRES) BY ELIPHAS LEVI THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES ACCORDING TO ENOCH, ABRAHAM, HERMES TRISMEGISTUS AND SOLOMON BY ELIPHAS LEVI TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY ALEISTER CROWLEY “Religion says: ‘Believe and you will un- derstand.’ Science comes to say to you: ‘Un- derstand and you will believe.’ “At that moment the whole of science will change front; the spirit, so long dethroned and forgotten, will take its ancient place; it will be demonstrated that the old traditions are all true, that the whole of paganism is only a system of corrupted and misplaced truths, that it is sufficient to cleanse them, so to say, and to put them back again in their place, to see them shine with all their rays. In a word, all ideas will change, and since on all sides a multitude of the elect cry in concert, ‘Come, Lord, come!’ why should you blame the men who throw themselves forward into that majestic future, and pride themselves on having foreseen it?” (J. De Maistre, Soirées de St. Petersbourg.) TRANSLATOR’S NOTE IN the biographical and critical essay which Mr. Waite prefixes to his Mysteries of Magic he says: ‘A word must be added of the method of this digest, which claims to be something more than translation and has been infinitely more laborious. I believe it to be in all respects faithful, and where it has been necessary or possible for it to be literal, there also it is invariably literal.’ We agree that it is either more or less than translation, and the following examples selected at haz- ard in the course of half-an-hour will enable the reader to judge whether Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Contents Cross Or Crucifix?
    THE January 2017 The monthly newsletter of Trinity Lutheran Church & School in Fergus Falls, MN Cross Or Crucifix? A Lutheran Perspective Contents What do you suppose is the greatest, most recognizable, symbol of Christianity? Some would From the Pastor’s Desk 1-2 suggest that it is the fish <><. One does, after all, see them on Christian’s cars all over the Lutheran Identity 2 place. True, but I’ve never seen a fish on the top of a steeple. Not that many people wear them Why Do the Pastors Chant? 2 Trinity Events as jewelry. In our church we have banners, paraments, and stained glass windows depicting Epiphany Service 3 Christian symbols, but none of them has a fish. But we do have crosses all over the place, so I Thank You! 3 would contend that of all the symbols of Christianity none stands out above the cross. We Can Teach You! 3 We have crosses on our banners, paraments, stained glass windows, pews and altar. We Historian Asst. Needed 3 have a processional cross. We have two crosses that we use behind the altar, one plain and one Missionary Moment 3 crucifix. We make the sign of the holy cross at Baptisms, during Divine Service, in the morning Ladies’ Bible Study 4 when we arise, before devotions, after receiving the Sacrament and other times. The pastors LWML in January 4 wear pectoral crosses in Divine Service and many of you wear one on a necklace or chain, too. Trinity Men’s NetWork 4 So Lutherans clearly use and love the cross as a symbol of their faith.
    [Show full text]
  • Mater Dei Chapel Stained Glass Windows | Self-Guided Reflections Prepared by Marge Kloos, SC
    Mater Dei Chapel Stained Glass Windows | Self-Guided Reflections Prepared by Marge Kloos, SC This prayer reflection is designed for a 10-minute reflection each day during the academic year. View the window for that week and pray for 10 minutes with the reflection question or Scripture indicated. There are 32 weeks of the academic year and 28 windows. During the third week of Lent, you are encouraged to simply experience the cross in the sanctuary, followed by the fourth and fifth weeks of Lent, when you can walk around the Chapel and experience the Stations of the Cross. The week following Easter presents itself as the perfect time to close your eyes and see how your own imagination reveals the Resurrection. Resurrection is the central mystery within Christianity. Artistic renderings of resurrection are perhaps best left to the imagination and the work of the Spirit. With the crucifix at the front, begin in the sanctuary, facing the right side, moving left to right: Window #1 | Week 1 Symbols Rex Gloria: King of Glory Latin Cross Inside an Oval Archway: The oval shaped archway, or vesica, represents Mary’s womb, from which Christ came, the cross signifies Christ. Together they represent the birth of Christ. Reading 1 Timothy 6:15 Revelations 19:16 Luke 11:27 - Blessed is the woman who gave you birth and nursed you. Reflections Jesus, ordinary human, becomes the glorious one sent from God, through the womb of a woman, to be the way, the truth and the life. How do you praise God for such a great mystery? Window #2 | Week 2 Symbols Gladiolus: This flower represents the incarnation, the word made flesh.
    [Show full text]